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Lyra Crapps is blessed and she is happy.

On Saturday, August 13, 2022, Lyra will celebrate her 90th birthday with family and friends from 2 until 4 p.m. in The Round Room at First Methodist Church in Troy.  Everyone is invited to share this happy occasion with her.

“How blessed I am to celebrate 90 years,” Lyra said with a smile. “How blessed I am to have had such a fulfilling life with family and friends and with so many opportunities … and with music. So thankfully with music.”

Lyra Crapps cannot imagine her life without music. Her husband, the late Don Crapps, shared her love of music and “that made all the difference.”

“Knowing that Don loved music as I did meant so much,” she said. “My love of and appreciation for music began as a little girl with my mother and it has continued throughout my life.”

As a young married couple, Don and Lyra Capps came to Troy where they both had meaningful jobs with the Baptist Mission Board.

The couple later moved to the Greater Atlanta area where she was a member of the American Guild of Organists and had opportunities to play at different churches and for various denominations.

“Playing for so many denominations was challenging but I enjoyed playing the music and being a part of the congregations,” Lyra said. “I met many people and made many friendships. Everywhere I went, people were welcoming. I was blessed.”

Lyra and Don Crapps “came home” to Troy about 1992, and it was like coming home.

“When Jerry Spann called and asked me to play at First Methodist Church, I was thrilled. I was itching to do it,” Lyra said with a smile. “Music has been such a big part of my life, always. I can’t imagine my life without music or a world without music.”

From the first time, Lyra’s mother touched her tiny fingers to the keyboard until this day, there has been music.

“I play the piano and the organ,” she said. “They are both dear to me. There is more to playing the organ because there are so many parts to it. I can’t say that I enjoy playing one more than the other. A singer?  I have sung in choirs but I don’t consider myself a singer.”

And a teacher?

“Teaching others to play has brought so much joy to my life,” Lyra said. “Seeing the joy that playing the piano brings to others is such a blessing. I am thankful to God for the opportunities that I have been given so share music with others.

At age, soon to be 90, Lyra Crapps has recently experienced some health challenges.

And, those challenges have been reason to think about the songs that mean so much to her.

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” “How Frim a Foundation,” and “The Majesty and Gory of Your Name.”

“I’ve been thinking about the songs that are, and have been, especially meaningful to me,” she said and then added with a smile, “But I’m also thinking about my birthday celebration on Saturday and the people I will see and the conversations that we’ll have. I’m blessed and so thankful for these years and all the memories and the music.”

On Sunday, August 14, 2022, Lyra Crapps will be 90 years blessed. The birthday celebration will be on Saturday, August 13, at First Methodist Church in Troy. Come, celebrate with her.